The Science of Studying
by CapturedByNoodles
Summary: Rei was, in every sense , a critical thinker. He could compute complicated algorithms in his head in one minute or less. Calculate the trajectory of his jump with incredible ease, and even figure out which way to position his hips when swimming. Problem solving was something he prided himself in. So then why? Why was Nagisa the one problem he just couldn't solve? (Three-shot)


**Author's Note:** So. This happened. I don't know if I'm sorry. I'm not sorry. I posted it, Min. Are you happy?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters, the franchise, or anything related to Free! Iwatobi swim club. I really wish I did though.

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**The Science of Studying**

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Ryugazaki Rei should have known from the start. That when Nagisa followed him into the locker rooms after swim practice with that _look _on his face, it could only spell trouble.

"Rei-chan! I need your help." The boy said innocently – and for dramatic effect, batted his eyes like a flirtatious school girl. Changing out of his swim trunks, Rei looked at his bouncy friend with wary eyes. It was suspicious. Rei tilted his glasses in thought and slammed his locker shut. Usually if Nagisa needed something, he would just come outright and say it. During the two years he'd known Nagisa, from their fateful first encounter to their ritual morning jogs, Rei came to realize that Nagisa was a man of _many_ words, and equally as many actions. So this curious behavior set Rei's internal alarm system blazing, screaming, _"No, just back away now, there's still time to escape!"_

Rei shrugged on the last of his clothes and grabbed his bag.

Nagisa opened his mouth.

"I refuse." Was the quick and unrestrained reply. Nagisa deflated. Not today. Whatever Nagisa was scheming, it would have to wait until some other time. He was exhausted from practice as it stands, and Rei planned on going home and finishing his history assignment – one that Nagisa was so insistent on preventing him from. Nagisa visibly pouted, and Makoto and Haru, who walked in after them, looked towards Rei with mild interest.

"But Rei-chan, it's serious!" Nagisa whined, grabbing onto Rei's toned arms and shaking them with the velocity of an earthquake. Rei's head wobbled back and forth until Rei saw stars, while Nagisa chanted Rei's name over and over again, leaving an harmonious echo inside his head. Makoto chuckled.

"Maybe you should hear him out, Rei."

The blonds eyes were fervent with some unknown desire. Rei didn't know _what _that desire was, but he had no intention of finding out until _after _he completed his studies.

"Please Rei-chan, I need you!"

At those words, Rei flushed pathetically.

"No time. I have another engagement." Rei replied smoothly.

"It's life or death!" Nagisa wailed.

"Highly unlikely." The bespectacled track runner sighed. Nagisa made a spectacle of hanging onto his waist. Rei almost lost his balance when his back hit the lockers, Nagia's own weight threatening to send him toppling backwards.

"It's a matter of saving the world as we know it!" Nagisa screamed. This only caused Rei to smirk in amusement, pushing Nagisa away and placing his hands on his hips with an all-knowing scoff.

"Just that notion in itself is highly preposterous. The likelihood that I, helping you, would impact the world, is so small it's laughable."

"But what if I said it's true?" Nagisa proposed. "What if I said the world is at stake right now? That there's no time to waste? That if you don't help me, aliens are going to fall from the sky - bam! And they're going to come after you!"

"WHY WOULD THEY COME AFTER ME?" Rei wailed, not at all liking his role in this grossly ridiculous story.

"Because! The aliens, not understanding our language that well, picked up a dictionary in the hopes of getting some clues as to who the planets ruler is! That's when-!"

There was a pregnant pause.

"They flipped to a page. Ah ha! To "reign" means to rule! And obviously, Rei-chan being Rei-chan is the only one who can _Rei-_gn so-"

"THAT WAS A TERRIBLE PUN!"

Nagisa giggled and Rei frowned.

"I really can't, I need to study." He said seriously.

"Then you leave me no choice, Rei-chan. I'm sorry it has to be this way."

Rei froze. What was Nagisa going to do? Rei definitely didn't miss the ominous undertone. The subtle threat that lingered behind Nagisa's words. Rooted to the spot, ready for humiliation, Rei watched terrified as Nagisa's chest puffed up like a blow fish, before he stalked over towards Rei and stopped right in front of him. Their was a texas-stand off. Nagisa's big, purplish hues clashed with Rei's uncomfortable, anticipating pupils. The swimmer gulped, awaiting whatever it was Nagisa was attempting to do, but never foresaw what would come next. With a quick swipe, Nagisa easily stole the taller males glasses and thrust them on his face. Rei shrieked. They dangled daintily off Nagisa's nose before he ran away with a laugh. "You made me do this Rei-chan!"

"G-g-give those back! Nagisa-kun, I can't see! Stop!" He flailed his arms about desperately, "you're going to ruin your eyesight! Those are prescription!"

Nagisa grinned.

"Then help me!"

_No! No!_ This is exactly what he had wanted to avoid! But his options were limited. Rei calculated the length of his arm and the distance between him and his highly expensive frames. If he were to reach out and grab it now, with Nagisa's guard down, there was a 45% probability that he would be able to successfully retrieve them. However, what with his classmate's tendency to move around at a moments notice, the likelihood of obtaining them without a scratch or an indentation was in the tenth percentile. He had no choice but to listen to what the other had to say.

Nagisa beamed at the sight of Rei's shoulders slumping in defeat.

"Fine. What is it you need help with?"

Nagisa hummed.

"It's top secret." He murmured, pressing a finger against his lips. "Come closer and I'll tell you."

Rei swallowed. Cautiously he bent down and leaned in close. Nagisa's sweet breath fanned against his ear. The loud sound of something banging against a drum- _th-thump, th-thump, th-thump,_ echoed in his 's eyes widened. Was that his heart? Rei felt shivers wrack his entire body as Nagisa began to whisper...

"Math."

Rei blinked.

Had he heard...Nagisa correctly?

"M...math?" Rei repeated dumbly.

"Yup!" Nagisa replied with a soft smile, "I'm stuck! And because you're Rei-chan, and Rei-chan's a human calculator, I hoped you could help me."

Rei didn't know if that human-calculator bit was a compliment, but he let it slide anyways.

"Is...that really it?" He asked guardedly. Nagisa nodded his head and Rei suddenly felt silly for thinking it would be some grandiose scheme. Playing detective, cupid, among an assortment of other things had been his roll for the last two years, and since Makoto and Haruka-Senpai were able to ward of Nagisa's attempts with formidable ease, he was the target these days of Nagisa's vivid imagination. The tasked rested solely on his shoulders. Still-

"Can't you ask Haruka or Makoto-Senpai?" Rei asked.

"No." Nagisa's reply was quick and resolute, "Mako-chan's not as good at math, and Haru-chan thinks it's too much work."

"It requires effort." Was Haruka's blunt reply. Rei's head drooped. He figured this would happen. Haru grabbed his bag and nodded towards Makoto, who smiled apologetically, before following Haru out. "Sorry, I promised Haru I would walk home with him today. Good luck!" Makoto whispered to his unfortunate underclassmen, and Rei watched them leave until they disappeared from sight.

"Fine." Rei mumbled, letting out a yelp when Nagisa violently tugged him forward. Seems like he was on his own today, but he supposed this wouldn't be so unusual. Nagisa came over often, never to study but to poke fun at his things or bother him _while he studied, _so in a sense, it wasn't that different. The clasping of their hands only brought forth that swell of heat Rei has been so desperately trying to push away. As Nagisa rambled on about picking up some food before they, quote on quote, "became geniuses," Rei was preoccupied with his own thoughts. He didn't even realize he was being dragged to every corner store in town as his mind was planning out just how he would make it through this tutoring session intact.

The _feelings_ started months in.

No, he hadn't been oblivious to them. Rei was smart, smart enough to see the sure signs of a _like _that transcended mere friendship. Honestly, how they developed was a question that would always weigh on his cranium. He'd thought of countless scenarios in his head, mulled over _when_ it happened, _how_ it happened,_ what he was wearing,_ _what was the time, __what conversation did they engage in_ - that made him like Nagisa in a way normal boys did not. Trust that Rei had a list of theories. The school boy wasted no effort in drafting up a number of scenario's and timelines, all in a frantic attempt to find how, _how,_ _**how**; b_ut no matter how much he used his brain, in all its premeditated glory, Rei couldn't figure it out.

How he came to develop feelings for Nagisa on an intimate level, left him almost as clueless as to how Rin-san developed such sharp teeth.

A mystery; and like most mysteries, it left Rei feeling tormented, because it was one he just couldn't solve.

Nagisa waltzed out of the last convenience store with a bag full of Iwato-big surprise bread, and his favorite strawberry drinks.

"Ready to go?" Rei asked, looking on with mild disgust at all the sweet things, and Nagisa smiled wide.

"Yes sir!" He beamed, giving a two finger salute. His short blond hair bounced as he skipped towards the setting sun, only enhancing the glow of his soft locks and eliciting an urge inside Rei to touch it. Rei never had such urges before. Such desires, like the ones that came up when Nagisa was around, were foreign to him until they met- and it wasn't just the desire to hold him. Oh no, there were plenty more. The insatiable urge to comb his fingers through those unruly locks twitched at his fingers. Nagisa never brushed his hair properly. It was obvious Nagisa woke up, patted it down, and came to school; and that just wouldn't do.

Rei would imagine he was brushing Nagisa's hair while giving him an important lecture on grooming etiquette. Alright, it wasn't very romantic in the least, but such primal fantasies in boys never usually touched that realm. That touching would often morph into intimate caresses. Rei would run his hands along the curve of Nagisa's spine. They'd be laying on the bed, brush discarded, breaths heavy, while Rei placed soft, butterfly kisses along Nagisa's smooth collarbone...and _god _would Nagisa fit so perfectly.

He would be beautiful...absolutely beautiful, especially when their limbs entangled and their mouths molded together in a fit of passion Nagisa would _moan _and _oh _the sounds he would make.

_"Rei-chan..."_

He would call out, just like that.

"Rei-chan."

Yes, yes, even more.

It would be even **louder.**

"Rei-chan!"

Just a _little _bit louder.

"Rei-chan!" A face flew in front of his and Rei jumped, startled, falling quite _ungracefully _on his bum and burning red with the realization that he'd become absorbed in his daydreams. So absorbed, that Nagisa had worried there'd been something wrong with him, to which he ran back and tried to get his attention. Rei was mortified. Why Nagisa? It isn't as if Nagisa was unattractive, quite the contrary, and Rei was raised in a way that made switching teams not the slightest issue in the least_. Still, _Rei wondered _why? _They were complete opposites, and that ridiculous saying that opposites attract was something Rei just couldn't accept as fact.

Seeing Rei land on his tush with an unceremonious thunk caused Nagisa to bust out into a fit of unstoppable giggles.

"Hahahaha, R-rei-chan, what's wrong with you?" He laughed, and Rei quickly dusted himself off, wiped the dirt off his glasses, and turned away with an emberassed huff.

"N-nothing. Let's go!"

"Alrighty!" Nagisa chirped.

Rei reprimanded himself in his head. Hopefully, he would be able to ward off such thoughts until _after _he was finished helping Nagisa.

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**Author's closing notes:**

Yeeeesh- I've never written Free! before, but I'm taking a stab at it because I really love Rei and Nagisa, so I'm hoping to make this just a quick Three-shot. The next chapter should be up soon. So thank you for reading this spontaneous, impulsive, story. Please let me know your thoughts.


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